In shocking news, Frenchman Johann Zarco and Red Bull KTM have agreed to a mutual decision of ending their two-year agreement before its completion. Ever since Zarco joined the team, he has been finding it difficult to ride the aggressive RC16 as per his style.
Zarco and KTM signed a two-year deal during the 2018 MotoGP season which meant that he would be astride an RC16 for the next two (2019 and 2020) MotoGP seasons. Since the beginning of this year’s season, we’ve seen Zarco struggling to find the sweet spot with the KTM race bike. It’s not that he isn’t a talented racer, it’s just that sometimes you just couldn’t find the right frequency with the bike, even after performing all the tuning you could.
It isn’t the first time that a racer has found it difficult to adapt to a new bike after switching teams. Take Lorenzo for example. The Spaniard was at a totally different level when he was in Yamaha and rode the M1. Then he changed teams and joined Ducati where he struggled to control the Desmosedici. Now, he is with Honda and his performance has everything but applaudable.
So, it is final that Zarco and KTM will part ways from next year but where the Frenchman would go is still unclear. For the 2020 MotoGP season, only two seats in the championship would be available, Takaaki Nakagami’s place at LCR Honda and Jack Miller’s Pramac Ducati. Let’s see whether Zarco would continue his career in MotoGP by taking any of these two seats or decides to go in the World Superbike Championship.
